Background

Milo Addica was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Education

Addica attended the University of Massachusetts, the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Acting, and took a playwriting course at the Hunter College.

Career

Addica wrote scripts for television shows and movies including Birth, Ms. Long Legs, and The King. But the greatest fame he has gained thanks to his screenplay Monster's Ball on which Addica worked together with Will Rokos. The screenwriters first met when they acted in a play together off-Broadway. Addica discussed his ideas with Rokos, and a partnership was formed. It took eight months of writing together in Addica’s tiny apartment before the screenplay for Monster's Ball was completed.

Addica and Rokos completed Monster's Ball in 1995, but the movie was not produced until 2001. It is the story of Flank, a death-row guard at Georgia State Penitentiary who hails from a family of redneck racists. Death-row inmate Lawrence Musgrove's wife Leticia and his obese son Tyrell visit Lawrence for the last time but decline to watch his execution. Lawrence is executed, with the help of Hank, without the presence of his lawyer, preacher, or family, a situation dubbed a "monster's ball" by prison guards. After the execution, Hank quits his job and begins a relationship with Leticia.

Variety’ contributor Robert Koehler noted, "Burning with a quiet intensity. Monster's Ball is bolstered by a poetic, intelligent sensibility not seen in an American film since Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line." "Strip away the strident melodrama, and you have this season’s moodiest, most adult love story," summarized Richard Corliss in a Time review.

Achievements

• Milo Addica is widely known for his scripts for Monster's Ball (2001), Birth (2004), and Ms. Long Legs (2015). His screenplay "Monster's Ball" was nominated for an Oscar, Writers Guild of America Award, and Independent Spirit Award, all 2001. Addica also wrote for television shows, including Thirtysomething and LA Law.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Monster's Ball

    (After a family tragedy, a racist prison guard re-examines...)

    2001
  • The King

    (A troubled man, recently discharged from the Navy, goes t...)

    2005
  • Under the Skin

    (A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evenin...)

    2013
  • Birth

    (A young boy attempts to convince a woman that he is her d...)

    2004

  • Ms. Long Legs

    (A young boy wakes up to find the world turned upside down.)

    2015

Connections

colleague:

Will Rokos

Will Rokos and Milo Addica collaborated on Monster's Ball's screenplay.